| CD REVIEW The Rotted |
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Band : The Rotted New name, old band...or almost! Death Metal act Gorerotted came faced with yet another line-up change during 2007, and decided to make a new start of it, taking on the surname the fans had been giving them all those years! A quick overview of the band's history? Sure! Formed in 1997, the London based band was founded by mainstay Tim Weaverley (guitar, also known as Tim Carley), singers Graham Hodis (deep gorwls) and Jason Merle (high-pitched yelling and screams), second guitarist Jeremy Gray, bassist Steve Smith, and drummer Dave Hirschheimer. The latter only stayed long enough to be able to cooperate on the band's 1998 4-track demo Her Gash I Did Slash (which saw additional vocal duties done by one Graham Hodis). Sessioning on drums for a while would be Dan Ford (who'd move on to play with Sikth), whom was replaced by Jon Rushford in 1999, and around the same time current frontman Ben McCraw (deep rumbling growls) entered the fold. Dave Hewitt also joined that year, as replacement for Gray, who'd left the year prior. Debut full-length Mutilated In Minutes was released by Dead Again Records in 2001, before being re-issued through Relapse in 2002. I'm not sure when exactly Hewitt and Smith left, but fact is that they were respectively replaced by Matt Hoban and Phil Wilson (who would add a third dimension to the dual vocals with high-pitched growls) somewhere in 2001. Whatever...the new line-up did their debut by offering three new tracks to the 2002 3-way split release Split Your Guts Vol.1, which also included the bands Gronibard and Gruesome Stuff Relish. The line-up remained stable for a while, also delivering the 2003 album Only Tools And Corpses (a pun on the popular British tv-show Only Fools And Horses) on the Metal Blade label. When Merle left in 2004, Wilson would take over his style of vocal duties, and as such the band delivered 2005's A New Dawn For The Dead again on Metal Blade (review by collegue Ivan posted 25 July of that year). In September of last year (as work started on the material of the new album), Hoban was replaced by guitarist John "Gian Pyres" Pires (previously with Cradle Of Filth, Christian Death, and Extreme Noise Terror). Then, when earlier this year also the drummer had to be replaced (new man is Nate Gould, formerly with IDF) the band decided on a change of monicker...not only in a tribute to former members, but also because the original idea and motives behind the band had changed over the years (starting with sick and offensive lyrical topics just for the hell of it and often to make fun, and evolving to lyrically use some of the horrors the band have actually gone through in the last couple of years). When comparing the Gorerotted material on myspace.com/gorerottedmetal (especially created for the fans, with links to old members, plus tons of videos and such, still to come) with that of The Rotted, one thing which becomes evident is that musically the band also evolved over the years. The guitar riffs are still frequently fast and remain technical, but there's an increased amount of melodic and often harmonic lead guitar work incorporated in the whole as well. The bass still doubles these parts for the most parts, but also got some freedom to do a couple of freak-out thingies, and both the guitars and bass are still tuned down a whole step to achieve a heavier sound. Drumming is still extremely fast, making ample use of double bass drumming and blast beats. The vocal delivery however hàs changed, Wilson now no longer as involved in bringing such high-pitched yells and screams, but what remained the same is the sometimes awkward lyrical humour the band occasionally displays...I mean, a song title like "It's Like There's A Party In My Mouth (And Everybody's Being Sick" says enough, right? Check out two of the album's songs at myspace.com/therotted. It won't give you an example of what happens when the band goes into a more mellow mode...instrumentals "A Brief Moment Of Regret" and album closing "28 Days Later" are simply su-bli-me! (as is, quite frankly, the rest of the album!!!), and that's not just my opinion, as the first has already been added to the instore play-list of British highstreet clothes giants Topshop/ Topman. One week before the European release date, the entire album was made available for free streaming at terrorizer.com...for one week only (which is far too late for you to find out about nów, but then we only got the album sent in early July, so...). The band has also made themselves elegable for vote at the Kerrang Awards in the categories of "Best British Band", "BestAlbum",and "Best British Newcomer" (check out the blogs at the band's MySpace page for further details. People looking forward to making their acqaintance with the band in live conditions may wanna check 'em out at Wacken Open Air (Aug. 1), Summer Breeze Open Air (Aug. 13, both in Germany), the Minifest 2008 (in Throwbridge, UK on Aug 17), at Vlamrock (in As, Belgium on Aug 30), or at Dynamo Outdoor Fest (on Aug. 31 in Eindhoven, Holland). For further live dates, keep checking the band's MySpace! 98/100 Tony. |